Over the Bodies and Through the Ruins
by AlexAmericus
Summary: This is a rewrite of "Cry of the Brave." Over the years, Cody, David, and Maris have changed (that I am proud of). Cody and David are trying to make their way through the ruins they once called home. They have no idea where they'll go. They meet some friends along the way who are willing to help. Will they survive and get out or will they become food for the zombies?
1. Prelude

Summary: This is a rewrite of "Cry of the Brave." Over the years, Cody, David, and Maris have changed (that I am proud of). This tells the story of two lifelong friends trying to survive the hell which they have called home.

Prelude

_It was just like any other normal night; Cody and David were in their apartment getting ready to go to sleep, talking about different topics of their interest. It was a quiet Friday night, and they didn't have much to do for the weekend, and both of them were thinking about just having a mega-movie marathon._

"_We definitely need to have Lord of the Rings and Pirates." Cody smiled to his life long friend, "Those movies would keep us busy throughout the whole day."_

"_As they should, and to be honest; I honestly thought that you were going to say Star Wars." David grinned at him._

_Cody scoffed, "I might've grown up with it, but Tim was the one who went through that phase. Oh, and to make you happy, we should watch Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List." David noticeably cringed at Schindler's List._

_David shook his head, "How about we watch that first, I really don't want those images burned into my brain when I go to sleep." David shuddered at remembering the horrid movie that had scarred him._

_Cody himself had never seen Schindler's List, but his World History teacher back at high school talked about it all the time, "So then we'll go: Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan – get the war movies out of the way – then maybe we could do Pirates and Lord of the Rings, and…any others?"_

_David tilted his head to one side and looked up at the ceiling as he contemplated the movie titles he had in his possession, "Young Frankenstein?" He shrugged. This made Cody jump up and down in excitement, he loved that movie. Hell, anything that was in black and white he loved. David laughed at his best friend's excitement._

"_Slow down, speed for brains, weren't you going to sleep?" David asked._

"_Not anymore." Cody grinned widely._

_David shook his head at his hyper friend, "Okay, whatever."_

"_What? Give me one good reason I need to go to sleep right now." Cody retorted._

"_Well gee," David crossed his arms, "You have classes tomorrow and not to mention work. Oh, and you still need to finish that project that you have failed to start."_

"_Okay fine." And with that, Cody fell face down into his bed, his legs not even on the mattress itself._

_David shrugged, "That works." David himself crawled into his bed and shut off the table light next to him and went to sleep._

That was their last normal night before the zombie outbreak.


	2. Chapter One

Chapter One

It had to have been about two in the morning when David woke up to the sound of a strange scratching on the window. David tried to ignore it and turned away from the window while wrapping himself tighter in his bed sheets. He stared through the darkness patiently waiting for sleep to take over and pull him back. The scratching had stopped after a few minutes, and there was nothing to be heard on the other side of the window.

_Must've been a stray cat._ David thought to himself as he buried his head into his pillow. He looked at the bed next to him and saw that Cody wasn't there like he would have been in the middle of the night. _Maybe he got hungry._ The farm-boy thought simply. He yawned widely and shifted around to make himself more comfortable and closed his eyes, hoping that sleep would take over.

David heard footsteps coming down the hall into the room. It was Cody.

Cody had a fearful look on his face as he looked to his lifelong friend. He and David had been friends ever since elementary school. Cody was being bullied on the playground in the first grade, and the two older kids harassing him were just about to punch him when David stepped in and told the two kids to scram or else they'd be seeing him charge at them on a horse after school. The two second grade bullies fled the scene, and David helped Cody up. And despite being a couple years his senior, David and Cody were the best of friends from then on.

Cody walked over to his friend's bed and saw that he was sleeping. He was scared to wake him up, but what he saw outside that woke him up in the first place had been horrific, something that was only seen in the campy horror movies.

Cody decided that it was for the best that he woke up David.

Cody put his hand on David's shoulder and slightly shook the man whispering, "David, David, hey David wake up. There's something outside man."

David groaned from being woken from his borderline slumber, he propped himself up on his right arm and rubbed his face in annoyance with his left saying, "Cody, it's two in the morning, it's probably a stray cat or the hobo that lives behind the dumpster."

Cody shook his head, "It not either, I just looked out the window, there's a bunch of people walking around outside. I couldn't see exactly what they were doing, but they looked as if they were about to go audition for an adaptation of Thriller."

David almost laughed at what Cody said, "That's probably what it was then."

Cody threw back his head in frustration, "No, it wasn't, I know what I saw. Get your ass out of bed and I'll show you."

David sighed in defeat and lifted himself out of his warm and comfortable bed and followed Cody down the hall into the main living area. The spazmotaz went straight to the window and peeked out the blinds. When David reached the scene of the crime Cody pointed out the window and whispered, "Out there."

David looked through the blinds and saw just a bunch of people who lived in the complex shuffling around as if they really were going to do a flash mob for Thriller, they had all of the makeup and tattered clothes and everything they needed, all they needed now was a Michael Jackson impersonator dressed in a ghastly orange suit and a stereo.

"You got me up for this; it's probably a flash mob." David straightened up and smiled at his friend.

"What kind of flash mob takes place at two in the morning David?" Cody retorted in slight anger.

"Cool the jets Cody; I'm sure there's an explanation for this." David replied, "Not everything you see is from a horror movie, okay? I'll just go out and see what's up, just let me get some shoes on." David turned away from the window to look for his boots.

"You're going out there?" Cody asked in surprise. "David, no! Don't go out there, they'll get you!"

"If they are real, I'd love to see them catch me." David smiled as he pulled on the only pair of shoes he owned. As he fitted the last cowboy boot, he stood up and looked at Cody, "Besides, I've dealt with worse, remember that damn horse that kicked me?"

Cody remembered that incident all right; David had been at the wrong place at the wrong time and got kicked by a horse his grandfather was trying to train. The idiot farm boy was so stubborn that day he drove himself to the hospital. But these things were different from a horse, there's so many of them out there and even though they don't get the concept of teamwork, they rush and attack as if they did. Cody watched in cold-blooded fear as David walked out the front door.

David walked out into the slightly chilly night air and looked around. There was one standing just outside the door of his neighbors house. He walked down a few doors and tapped the person on the shoulder. They turned to him and looked at him with glazed over eyes, and it looked as if their jaw had seen better days.

"Hi, I live a couple doors down back that way. Do you mind telling me what's going on here?" Is what David would have said if he was stupid enough not to run away.

David saw the mangled mess of what was his neighbor and realized that Cody was right, something was definitely wrong around here. David backed away slowly a few feet, then turned and made a break for it straight to his apartment before the creature could even partially register what was going on.

David nearly slammed the door as he ran into the apartment in fear. Cody jumped away from the window as he saw him come in. "Believe me now?" Cody glared at him.

David locked the door tight and looked out the peephole to make sure nothing had chased after him, "Yes, I do. Now we need to get the hell out of here."

Cody looked at his friend in amazement, "How, you're truck is clear across the parking lot, we won't make it there alive!"

"Oh ye of little faith." David muttered and fast walked to the room, "Come on, we've got to hurry before they multiply."

Cody jogged into the bedroom and saw David already packing his duffel with clothes and necessities. Cody caught on and quickly reached under his bed and grabbed his duffel as well. He started to scurry around picking up clothes and other things he would pack into the bag. David had finished packing and had already pulled some clothes from his dresser and headed to the bathroom, Cody stared at him.

"I'm not driving a truck in my pajamas." David replied.

Cody shook his head and realized David was half right, and started to get dressed in casual clothes himself. He finished just as David came back to throw his pajamas into the duffel with the rest of his stuff. Cody zipped up his duffel and David snatched it to take it to the living room.

"I have another duffel under my bed," David called over his shoulder, "Grab that and start putting some food and water in it, non perishable."

Cody scurried over to David's bed snatched the duffel. Cody saw that there was also a big black case under his bed. "What about this case?" Cody called out.

Cody didn't see David rush back into the room and approach the other side of the bed. David dragged out the big black case, surprising Cody while doing so, and laid it down on the bed and told him, "This is our ticket to safety." Cody watched as David opened up the case to reveal a large hunting rifle. Cody's eyes widened.

"I didn't know you took this with you." Cody pointed at the firearm.

David scoffed and grinned at him, "I never stay in a place and not hunt at least once a year, what kind of farm boy do you take me for?"

Cody smiled at his friend's logic, "You have enough ammo?"

David nodded, "Oh yeah, enough to get us to the next state."

"And gas?" Cody asked as the two made their way to the living room.

"I just filled up the truck yesterday." David replied loading his gun

"Okay, I've got the food and everything else." Cody informed as he started to sling his duffel over his shoulder

"Awesome then." David handed him the other two duffels. "Sorry bro, but you've got to carry these until we get to the truck. I need my hands free." David apologized while shoving some more ammo in his pants and coat pockets.

Cody shrugged on the rest on the meager luggage. "It's fine. The truck's not that far is it?"

David shook his head.

Cody took a deep breath and said, "Okay then, I'm ready." Cody readjusted some of the luggage to make sure it wouldn't fall.

David nodded as he unlocked the door and quickly pushed it open with the butt of his rifle, and turned to Cody "Follow close behind me, when I say run, you run got it?"

Cody realized something about David just then, "Wait, David!"

"What?"

Cody pointed to his face, "Glasses."

David lifted a hand to touch his eyes, "Shit, no wonder I couldn't see them, stay here." David ordered as he ran to the bedroom to fetch his glasses.

Cody looked out the open door and waited for David to come back. To his horror some of the zombies had noticed the door being open, and started to shuffle in.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap. DAVID!" Cody yelled for his friend.

David rushed into the living room with his gun ready (and glasses on) and shot the first two zombies dead. The third one tried to make a grab for Cody, who was helpless at the time, but David swung his gun around so that he was holding the barrel and sent the blunt butt of the rifle crashing down of the zombie's head. The blunt force trauma was great enough that the zombie fell to the ground dead with a huge dent in his head.

Cody relaxed greatly as he zombie fell dead, "Thanks man."

"Anytime bro." David panted. "C'mon, we're not out of the woods yet." David patted Cody's arm and lead the way out of the apartment, shooting the zombies that even dared to come close to the borderline redneck. Gunshots cut through the night like knives, attracting more zombies to come out from hiding. David instructed Cody to take his car keys and head for the truck and lock himself in while he shot off a few more rounds.

Cody snatched the keys from David and made a break for the truck. He saw a zombie running at him from the other side of the parking lot and quickly unlocked the passenger side door. Just as the zombie was about to grab at Cody, he opened up the car door fast enough to hit the zombie and make it fall to the ground. Cody noticed a crowbar on the car floor in the passenger side and picked it up to crack it into the skull of another zombie.

Cody opened up the back door and shoved the luggage he dropped inside the truck. Just as he shut the door, David had seating himself at the driver's side, and started yelling at Cody to get his scrawny ass in the truck. Cody happily obeyed and dived into the truck and slammed his door shut.

David took the keys and started up the car, quickly threw it in reverse – knocking down a few zombies in the process – and sped off into the night out of the apartment complex.

David looked to Cody and said between breaths, "You okay? Were you bitten?"

Cody swallowed and replied, "No. I'm fine."

David got onto the freeway ramp and the two friends took off into the darkness of the road, never to turn back, never to return to the hellhole. They were survivors now, and they had to find a way to either get to a safer place with no zombies, or move to a different country altogether. All they could do now though was drive and not look back.


End file.
